Not really "heroes" but several pastors / youth leaders from when I was young got caught in sex scandals and embezzling. My childhood bully became a youth paster and got convicted of sex crimes against minors.
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
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None of them, really. Mr. Rogers was genuinely as awesome as he seemed. As a young adult, John Von Neumann, Grace Hopper, and Claude Shannon became my heroes. None have anything particularly bad that I've seen.
There are some people whose work I admire whom I don't like, e.g. Harlan Ellison was famously an asshat. But they're not my heroes, and the work is not the creator.
I guess religious leaders? Genocide between religions put a hamper on that quickly.
Growing up in West Germany during the 1980s and `90s, most of my childhood heroes (Astrid Lingdren, Peter Lustig, Armin Maiwald & Christoph Biemann) have stood the test of time. Peter Lustig, in parts comparable to Mr. Rogers to anyone from the US, fell victim to a public smear campaign by german Springer media corporation after he spoke oout against them. They took some statements he made in an interview totally out of context and tried to mark him as if he hated children.
I never really had heroes. I did see some people are more trustworthy or credible but never another I ever gave hero status to. The entire idea seemed strange to me.
I will say I was right about Elon Musk. There was just something about him I couldn’t put my finger on that screamed monster and nobody believed me. I just had a weird ick feeling about him.
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